Page 27 of Dark Souls Academy: The Sacrifice

Witnessing her pain gave me a twisted sense of satisfaction. Even though, I didn’t condone assault, my smile stretched until my cheeks ached, threatening to crack.

“What in the Heaven is going on? Ivy?” Her voice trembled as if saying my name stole her anger.

All the guys had moved to grab a weapon, so she just saw me, naked and bound. I expected her to lunge at me, ready to finish the job and get me out of her hair once and for all. To my surprise, she limped over to me with fear darkening her pretty eyes. Her shaky hands pulled at my bound wrists.

“Why is she here?” Trigger gripped Tila by the back of her neck and tossed her away from me.

Her little shriek of surprise that came from her tugged at my heart. Why was this girl that I despised so much getting under my skin all of a sudden?

“Is this your doing?” He growled at her while pointing at me. “If you hurt Ivy, I’ll do more than kill you. I’ll show you every brutal torture I went through as a child.” He got close to her face. His eyes wild and red with his demon. His black horns burst from his head as he continued. “And the rape bit won’t be done by me. I’ll find an ogre or something to tear your insides.”

“Trigger that’s enough. It was me,” I said but neither of them heard me. His hatred for her and her own fear were too consuming.

“I’d never hurt Ivy, now. She’s my fucking Master.” I flinched at that word. Technically, Lilah and Vivian were once my slaves as well, but I hated the thought, so I made sure they knew they were my friends.

That was how Hell functioned—the strong ruled the weak, and the weakest were slaves. They handled the dirty work of Hell. As the revolution progressed, it became clear that slaves wielded true power. They controlled the resources, did the cleaning, the shopping.

Now, I had more slaves. Great. But summoning a slave to you with their human name... unheard of.

“So, what are you doing here, and how did you even get here?” Bones asked, stepping to Trigger and efficiently blocking her path to me. The pleading eyes she directed to my mate had my hackles rising. Every time she used those pathetic puppy dog expressions, she manipulated one of them or at least hoped to.

My blood boiled with jealousy. The numbness slowly crawled forward as if it was some old movie villain who was ready to pounce on me. It knew that I didn’t want to feel the ache in my heart. I bit my tongue and forced it away. My scowl darkened.Stop that shit right now.

Tila’s back went ramrod straight. Her cheeks bloomed into a bright red as she shifted away from my men. Not meeting anyone’s gaze. Interesting. Had I said that out loud?

“All I know is, one minute I was sleeping in my room and the next thing I heard my name and felt the power and the pain. When I arrived here, I thought she was in trouble, so I didn’t even question what was going on until Trigger pulled me away.” She rolled her eyes when Trigger shook his head as if he didn’t believe her. “So, you believe that I teleported into a room where tons of people want to kill me?”

Trigger shrugged. “I believe that you are a master manipulator. Maybe you had someone help you. Ivy has this darkness inside of her all of a sudden, and then you arrive. Did u curse her, so her demon would come out?"

It was my turn to roll my eyes. If he wasn’t going to listen to me, I wasn’t gonna waste my breath. Honestly, I didn’t blame him. She’d done some twisted things to the brothers since mating with them, and if they wanted to sort it out on their own, fine by me. She’d better be telling the truth. I was fairly certain it was me, but this woman had a black soul for a reason.

She huffed out an annoyed breath. “All I know is what that fucktwat Lucifer has been taunting me with in my dreams.” A recognition of something made her eyes widen, that and, the glint in her eyes said she held something back.

At the sometime, everyone stiffened at the Devil’s name coming from her mouth. She worshipped Lucifer, and now she was cursing his name. All I could hear was everyone’s breathing as we waited for her to continue. She needed tohurry.My gut was tight with tension.

Her chin lifted as she winced, and the words shot from her mouth. “Lucifer has the ability to bring people’s demon out. Whatever he did to me, he’s probably doing it to Ivy. I only remember what he said because of Ivy’s blockage on me.”

“Blockage?” I repeated.

She shrugged. “I don’t understand it either, but when Lucifer tried to come into my dreams tonight, he growled out that hecouldn’t get through the block that you put on me. My soul was already spoken for or some shit. All night I've been having flashes of his previous dream visits, he made me forget things he said or did to me. He was so cruel, and I didn’t even know it. I truly thought that he liked me. Pretty pathetic, huh?”

“Yes,” Trigger said with menace in his tone. I didn’t think he would ever forgive Tila, not after she said that men couldn’t be raped. I only knew a sliver of the torture he endured growing up but being forced to be sexual in front of an audience was a huge trauma from his past. So, again, I didn’t blame him. Tila knew all his past and still wanted to do the same to him.

She snickered. A bitter echo to the sound. “I know.”

Bones broke into laughter. “After all the stories and things we told you, you still believed he had a heart? You’re the stupidest fucking bitch in Hell. Almost as foolish as those Succubi who think they’ll become his Queen.” Tila flinched at the reminder of Lucifer’s harem, who were treated like Queens for a short time before being discarded and used as he saw fit.

I switched on my third eye for a second. As I predicted, her aura was still mostly black, but the color that I saw was no longer being devoured by the darkness. So, she was probably telling the truth. Whatever was going on with Lucifer had something to do with it. Before I could turn it off the black flashed. The black cloud ate away at other colors.

“Yeah, yeah, poor little princes of Hell. Daddy was mean to you. You don’t know anything about being a slave. Before I met you, I may have been under eighteen and unable to leave my fucking Master’s home?—”

“Father.” Kain corrected.

She chuckled, shaking her head as she crossed her arms. “You’re delusional if you think that demon was a father. He was my Master and did things to me no one should.”

Kain shook his head. “Why are you lying? You never mentioned any of this. Even when you were kind and loving.”

She froze and flashed him a deadly glare. “It was your lovely father. He took those memories from me to help me be a better toy for you. He was so angry when you guys fell for me. The fucker tortured me.”

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